Brooklyn Man Charged With Murder Tied to Bank Fraud

A Brooklyn man alleged to be the head of a counterfeit check cashing scheme was ordered held without bail Wednesday after being charged with killing a woman who was cooperating against him.

An indictment was unsealed Wednesday charging Naquan Reyes, 29 years old, with the murder of Nicole Thompson, allegedly to prevent her from cooperating with authorities, according to the office of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Ms. Thompson had been arrested by the NYPD in July 2010 in connection with bank fraud, began cooperating with authorities and named Mr. Reyes as the ringleader, according to a sentencing memorandum submitted by prosecutors on Wednesday.

The fraud is alleged to have involved Mr. Reyes recruiting people to deposit counterfeit checks he provided to them and then making withdrawals before the banks determined the checks were counterfeit.

According to the memo, “Just a few days later, Thompson started to receive threatening text messages from Reyes and three days after that, she disappeared.”

Eight days after she started cooperating, the 24-year-old Ms. Thompson’s body, “duct taped and wrapped in garbage bags,” was found in a dumpster in Landover, Maryland, the memo states. An autopsy revealed that Ms. Thompson, who served in the U.S. Army National Guard, died of asphyxiation.

This past February, a confidential source made a consensual recordings of meetings with Mr. Reyes, the memo states. In one meeting, the source asked Mr. Reyes why he didn’t have others commit the murder, the memo states. “‘It was too sloppy,” he was recorded saying. “ ‘ I just did it myself.’”

Mr. Reyes was ordered held without bail at his first appearance in Brooklyn federal court. His attorney couldn’t be reached for comment.